Creating Paths

Paths can be created by the
Pencil (Freehand),
Bezier (Pen), and
Calligraphy
drawing tools. They can also be created by conversion from a
regular shape or text object.

By default, paths created with the Pencil and Bezier tools
have a black stroke with a width of one pixel while the
Calligraphy tool will use the Current style. These behaviors
can be changed in the corresponding sections of the
Inkscape Preferences dialog. (Right Mouse Click
on the Current style indicator in the Tool Controls to open
the dialog.)

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

The Pencil Tool

The Pencil (or Freehand) Tool is perhaps the
easiest tool with which to draw a path. Simply click on the
icon (F6 or p) in the
Tool Box
and then click-drag the mouse over the canvas to draw a
line. Holding down the Shift key while drawing
temporary disables nodes snapping to the
Grid or Guide Lines.
It also, if a path is selected, add the new sub-path to the
selected path.

Holding down the Alt key while drawing enables
the Sketch mode. While in this mode, all
strokes are averaged to create a final stroke, temporarily shown
as a red path. Releasing the Alt key finalizes
the path. This feature is considered experimental and does not
give the expected result if one strokes a line back and forth.
Instead, draw all your strokes in the same direction.

As long as a path is selected, you can extend the path by
click-dragging from one of the path's ends. To prevent adding to a
path, deselect the path with the Esc key.

To delete an unfinished path, use Esc or
Ctrl+Z.

Paths drawn with the Pencil Tool tend to be
composed of many Bezier curves leading to an erratic-looking
path. One can smooth and simplify such curves by using the
Path →
Simplify
(Ctrl+L)
command one or more times.

A path drawn with the Pencil Tool after
zero, one, and multiple applications of the Path
Simplify command (with nodes shown).

There are two possible modes for the simplify command. The default is to
treat all of the selected paths as one object. The second mode is
to treat each sub-path separately. To use the second mode, add an
entry in the “options” section with
“simplifyindividualpaths” set to 1 in the
preferences.xml file.

A variety of options are available from the Tool Controls. These include
selecting the drawing mode, the amount of smoothness, and a “brush”.

:
Create Spiro
path. Probably not very useful, especially
if Smoothing is set to a low value. Use
the Bezier Tool instead.

Smoothing: range from 1 (minimum) to 100 (maximum).

From top to bottom: Paths drawn with smoothing of 5, 20, and 50.

Shape: Applies a shape to the path after it is drawn. This is
equivalent to using the
Pattern
Along PathLPE in Single,
stretched mode. The same option is available with the
Bezier Tool; look there for an example of use. Using
the Pencil Tool, a high Smoothness value
is more useful. The width can be adjusted by varying the
Width parameter in the Path Effect Editor dialog
when the path is selected.

Single dots can be created by using
Ctrl+Left Mouse
Click.
The size of the dot can be set in
the Pencil section of the Inkscape Preferences
dialog as a multiple of the current Stroke width. The dot is
represented in SVG as a filled path. Adding
the Shift key doubles the dot size
(and prevents snapping) while
adding the Alt creates a random-size dot.
The Bezier Tool has the same options.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

The Bezier (Pen) Tool

As mentioned previously, all paths are represented in Inkscape as a
series of Bezier curves. The
Bezier (or Pen) Tool
allows you to more directly control the Bezier
parameters as you draw a path. To select the tool, click on the
icon
(Shift+F6
or b)
in the Tool Box.

Tip

This is one place where paying attention to the
Notification Region is especially useful. The region not only
lists your options at each step but also gives the distance and
angle the cursor is from the last node when placing a new node or
dragging a handle.

To begin to draw a curve, click-drag on the canvas. The point
where you click becomes the end point or node of the curve. As you
drag the cursor, you'll see a gray line between the end point and
the cursor. This line is a tangent to your curve at the end
point. Release the mouse button to establish the first control
point.

Start of drawing Bezier curve.

Move the cursor to the position of the next Bezier curve end point
or node. A red line will show you the shape of the curve.

Positioning of next Bezier curve end point (node).

Click-drag from the end point to draw out a handle that allows you
to set the second control point. The pointer is actually pointing
to the sister of the second control point, which is the initial
control point of a second Bezier curve to be attached to the
first. The two points are collinear with and the same distance
from the Bezier curve end point or node.

Setting of second Bezier curve control point.

Next, move the cursor to the end point of the second Bezier curve.

Positioning of end point (node) of second Bezier curve.

One can repeat the above steps to add as many Bezier curves to the
path as required. To end the path, press Enter
or do a Right Mouse Click after placing the last
Bezier curve end point.

The finished path, composed of two Bezier curves.

Other useful things to know while using the Bezier Tool:

To create a path of straight lines, click rather than click-drag
at each node.

You can use the Arrow keys to move the last
node created while drawing a path.
Shift+Arrow
moves the node by ten times the normal step,
Alt+Arrow
will move the node by a screen pixel.

To set the two control points of a node separately (and force
the node to be a corner point), first set
the control point for the end point of the previous Bezier
curve, then without releasing the mouse button
hold down the Shift key while
setting the control point for the next Bezier curve.

To constrain a node to be at a multiple of the
Rotation snap angle with respect to the
previous node, hold down the Ctrl key while
setting it.

To constrain a control point to be at a multiple of the of the
Rotation snap angle with respect to a node,
hold down the Ctrl key while setting it. (Can
be used in conjunction with the Shift key.)

To delete the last node drawn, use the
Backspace key or the Del key.

To delete an unfinished path, use Esc or
Ctrl+Z.

To change an unfinished segment (the red line) from a curve to
a line, use
Shift+L.
To change an unfinished segment from a line to a curve, use
Shift+U.

To extend a previously drawn path, select the path, then click or
click-drag on an end point.

To close a path, click on the first endpoint when placing the last
endpoint.

Two options are available from the Tool Controls. They are
selecting the drawing mode and selecting a “brush”.

:
Create a sequence of paraxial line segments.
(Line segments are created parallel to the
coordinate axes.) Each line segment is normally drawn
perpendicular to the previous segment. Holding the
Shift key down allows drawing a segment
collinear to the previous segment. A path is closed with an
L-shaped section, the direction can be changed by holding
down the Shift key.

Shape: Applies a shape to the path after it is drawn. This is
equivalent to using the
Pattern
Along Path effect in Single,
stretched mode.

From top to bottom: Paths drawn with a Shape of:
None,
Triangle in,
Triangle out,
Ellipse, and
From clipboard.
In the last case, the diamond path was copied to the clipboard before
the path was drawn.

A drawing created with the Bezier Tool and the
Ellipse shape.

Single dots can be created by using
Ctrl+Left Mouse
Click.
This works only when in one of the straight line modes.
The size of the dot can be set in
the Pen section of the Inkscape Preferences
dialog as a multiple of the current Stroke width. The dot is
represented in SVG as a filled path. Adding
the Shift key doubles the dot size
(and prevents snapping) while
adding the Alt creates a random-size dot.
The Pencil Tool has the same options.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

The Calligraphy Tool

As the name suggests, the Calligraphy Tool can be used to
draw calligraphic lines. The resulting paths are different
than those drawn with the Pencil and Bezier tools in
that they are composed of two parallel
(or almost parallel)sub-paths,
allowing the resulting line to have a variable
width. The path is not stroked, but the Fill is solid (see Chapter 10, Attributes).

A path drawn with the Calligraphy Tool. The bottom path
shows how the nodes are placed.

To begin drawing a Calligraphy path, select the tool by clicking on the
icon
(Ctrl+F6 or
c)
in the Tool Box and then click-drag the mouse
over the canvas to draw a line. The line will have by default the
Current style. You can choose to draw all lines with a fixed style
by selecting the This tool's own style option
under the Calligraphy section in the Inkscape Preferences dialog.
If you turn off the Select new path option in the
dialog, a newly drawn object will not remain selected; you can then choose
a color from the Palette for the next calligraphic stroke without changing
the color of the previously drawn stroke.

The Calligraphy Tutorial
(Help →
Tutorials
→
Inkscape: Calligraphy) has many ideas on how
to use the Calligraphy Tool.

The Calligraphy Tool has many options, several accessible from
the keyboard and the rest from the Tool Controls. It is best
just to try changing the various option settings to get the feel
for them. With so many options,
it is desirable to be able to save the settings for future use.
You can create and access “Presets” from the
drop-down menu at the left side of the Tool Controls.

Options with keyboard:

To change the pen width while drawing:
Left Arrow and Right Arrow.
The Home
key sets the width to the minimum while
the End key sets the width to the maximum.
Typing Alt+X
will enable the Width entry box in the
Tool Controls; enter a number and then
hit Enter to set an exact width while drawing.

To change the pen angle while drawing:
Up Arrow and Down Arrow.

To add to an existing (selected) path (form a union), hold
the Shift down while drawing. Shapes are
automatically converted to paths.

To subtract from an existing (selected) path, hold
the Alt down while drawing. Shapes are
automatically converted to paths.

The Tool Controls contains too many options to all be shown at
the default Inkscape window width. To access all the options,
widen the Inkscape window or click on the “v” near the right
of the bar, which will show a drop-down menu with the missing
options.

Predefined and custom presets: There are six predefined presets as shown
in the figure below. You can add your own custom presets by selecting
Save... in the Preset menu.
A window will pop up where you can enter a name for your preset. The
presets are stored in your preference file so they are available for
future drawing sessions.

Pen width (1 to 100): number is tenths of percent of canvas
width (i.e., 15 is 1.5% of canvas width). Note that if you
change the zoom level, the effective pen width will change. To
keep the pen width constant, check the Width is in
absolute units box under the
Tools-Calligraphy page in the
Inkscape Preferences dialog. The pen width will then be in
units of px.

Fixation (0 to 100): How the angle of the pen follows the direction of the pen.

0: Angle follows pen direction (always perpendicular to motion).

100: Angle fixed to angle defined in Angle entry.

Caps (0.0 to 5.0): How round is the end of the stroke. This can
be used to produce round end-caps when the fixation is small
(i.e., simulating a round brush). Note that the cap extends
beyond where the stroke would normally end.

0.0: Flat end.

1.0: Approximately semicircular.

5.0: Elliptical, approximately five times longer than wide.

Tremor (0 to 100): How much random shake should the stroke have. This
parameter can be used to create a more realistic looking calligraphic stroke
by adding some randomness to the thickness of the stroke. It works by adding
randomness to the node handle orientations.

0: Smooth

100: Chaotic.

Wiggle (0 to 100): How resistant the pen is to
movement. With a value of 100, the pen will
wiggle all over the paper.

Mass (0 to 100): How the line follows pen movement.
The more massive the
pen, the smoother the stroke but the less responsive the pen will be. Try
a value of 10 for a good compromise between smoothness and responsiveness.

Two options require the use a tablet (e.g., Wacom): using tablet
pressure to control the width of a stroke and using tablet tilt
to control the orientation of the pen's nib. This
is discussed in the next section.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Using a Tablet

Updated for v0.48 and v0.48.1

Inkscape can make good use of a tablet for input. This is
especially true with the Calligraphy Tool where stroke
width and nib orientation can be controlled directly with a
pen. Before using the special features of a tablet,
the extended input devices must be
configured and enabled with the Input Devices dialog
(File →
Input Devices...
).
The dialog received a major change between v0.47 and v0.48.
and a minor update between v0.48 and v0.48.1.

For each device (or pseudo device) there are three possible
modes:

Disabled: Special features of extended input device
disabled. Treat as a regular mouse.

Screen: Special features of extended input device enabled. Note
that device will work as regular mouse outside of Canvas
region.

Window: Extended input device works only in Canvas region.
Normally, this mode is not needed and has been eliminated in
v0.48.1.

0.47 Dialog.
To enable pressure and tilt control, select the device to be
used from the pull-down menu at the top left then set the mode
using the drop-down menu on the top right.

The Axes tab allows you to swap input
assignments; that is, the x-axis for the y-axis if you rotate the
tablet by 90 degrees (although the axis are backward).

The Keys tab allows you to assign key
combinations to the macro keys, if any, on the tablet.

Pressure and tilt do not work properly on OS X due to problems
with the X11 implementation.

Input Devices dialog in v0.47.

0.48 Dialog.
To enable pressure and tilt control, select the device to be
used from the tree menu in the
Configuration tab.
In v0.48, click on the entry at the right
(Disabled/Screen/Window) to open a pop-up menu to set the mode
(you may have to hold the button down for a bit to open the
menu). If you don't see the entries on the right, widen the
dialog window.
In v0.48.1, check box at the far left of each line to switch
to Screen mode.

The Hardware tab allows you to test an
input device. If a device has been set in
Screen mode, then with the cursor in the
test area, the little circles will change color in response to
button events while the rectangles will change color in response
to motion events (x position, y position, pressure, tilt
left/right, tilt forward/back, wheel). An icon in the center of
the test area shows the type of device in use (mouse, pen,
eraser, pad). An addition, if the device you are testing is
selected in the tree menu, the incoming data will be displayed
numerically and graphically in the lower right.

In v0.48, if you enable the Wacom cursor, you may lose the
ability to pan the canvas by using the mouse wheel. As there
are no special features (tilt, pressure, etc.) associated
with the cursor, it is best to leave it disabled.

An example of calligraphy using a Wacom tablet. The figures are
the numbers 1 through 10 written (poorly) in the characters common to
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The tablet pressure was used to
control the stroke width.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Hatchings

The Calligraphy Tool has an option that allows parallel
lines (hatchings), as found in engravings, to be easily
drawn. To use this option, first select a guide
path. Any path, Shape or text can be used as a
guide. Then with the Ctrl key held down, drag
the pointer along a line parallel to the guide path. The closest
distance between the start of the drag and the guide path
determines the distance the new line will be away from the
guide. This is indicated by the gray circle around the
pointer. As you begin to drag, the circle turns green. This
indicates that the cursor is tracking the guide. When you finish
drawing a line, don't release the Ctrl! Just
start drawing (Left Mouse Drag) another line.
As long as you hold the Ctrl key down, each new
line will use the last drawn line as a guide and the spacing
will remain the same.

If you deviate too far from the guide, the pointer will break
free. This is indicated by a red circle. This is an intentional
design decision to allow one to continue a line past the end of
the guide. If you accidentally break free, you can delete the
last path and start again; but you must reset the interline
spacing. A slow steady hand works best. If the cursor is
consistently closer or farther away from the guide path than the
set spacing, the interline spacing will gradually decrease or
increase. This is a subtle effect. Note: if
the Mass value is zero, you may get small
discontinuities in the path that disrupt the tracking.

The Calligraphy Tool cursor near a guide
path when the Ctrl key is held down.

A series of “engraved” lines created with the
Calligraphy Tool while holding down
the Ctrl key. The red line is
the guide path.

The Trace Background
() option can be used to generate
hatchings with pen width reflecting the background darkness as
shown below.

A tracing of the shadow on the left is shown on the right.
The Tweak Tool was used to clean up the ends.

By default, each new line uses the previous line as its guide path.
To use the original guide path for each line, turn off the option
Select new path found under the Calligraphy Tool
section in the Inkscape Preferences dialog. The author finds it
easier to make hatchings with this option turned off.

Tip

Use Touch
selection to select the lines in the
hatchings. It is often easier to keep hatchings in a separate
Layer.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Paths from Other Objects

There are several ways to generate paths indirectly. One is to
convert a regular shape or text object into a
path. Another is to use Stroke to Path, which
converts a path into a closed path with two parallel sub-paths. A
third way to generate a path is to trace a bitmap image. This
method is considered in Chapter 20, Tracing Bitmaps.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Object to Path

To convert a regular shape or text object to a path, use
Path →
Object to Path
(Shift+Ctrl+C).
Once an object is converted, the object loses any special
knowledge associated with its previous existence. For example, the
text font cannot be changed. But once an object is converted
to a path, it can be modified in any arbitrary way, as shown in
the section called “A Hiking Club Logo—An Exercise in Paths”.

Converting text to path produces a Group of paths
with one path for each glyph. This allows the resulting characters
to be manipulated easier as well as preserves any custom attributes
(i.e., color) that individual glyphs might have had.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Stroke to Path

A stroked path can be converted to a filled object consisting of two parallel sub-paths
using
Path →
Stroke to Path
(Ctrl+Alt+C).
The path should have a non-zero thickness.
The before and after objects look the same but have different
structure and behavior. See the difference in the nodes in the
figures that follow.

A stroked path consisting of three nodes.

A filled path made from the stroked path by using the Stroke to Path
command. It consists of ten nodes.

The
Stroke to Path command can be used to
make a sets of parallel lines. Simply draw the path you desire,
setting the width to the desired gap plus the desired final
stroke width. Convert the stroke to path, remove the fill, and add
the stroke paint. The line segments at the ends can be removed if
desired by selecting each pair of end nodes and using the
Delete segment between two non-endpoint nodes command in the
Node Tool-Tool Controls (see next section). The
Path Offset commands (for
closed paths) or
Complex Strokes
are alternative ways of creating parallel lines.

The Stroke to Path command can also be used
to make polygons with uniformly rounded corners, as shown
below. The trick is to use a wide Stroke and set the Join
style to Round.

From left to right: A simple triangle; the triangle with a wide
Stroke (the opacity of the Stroke has been set to 50%
to allow the triangle shape to be seen); the finished triangle
with rounded corners after using the Stroke to Path
command and after removing the inner triangle.